Six thousand years in the past, evil demons under the rule of Queen Bansheera set out to destroy humanity so that they could claim Earth for their own. A wise and powerful warlock used his magic and skills to entrap all of the demons in a stone tomb in a distant desert. Unfortunately, in the year 2000 C.E., a group of ignorant nomads accidentally set the demons loose. In anticipation of such an event, Project Lightspeed was quietly established to develop weapons and technology that would enable five gifted humans the ability to morph into superheroes. Though reluctant at first to abandon their normal lives, the five know that they are the only hope for the world against Queen Bansheera and her minions, and they choose to stand together as the Lightspeed Power Rangers!

In Episode 15, “Strength of the Sun”, two of the three Troika demons, Thunderon and Falkar, continue to terrorize the Rangers after their debut in the previous episode. Meanwhile, Miss Fairweather informs Captain Mitchell that their latest Zord project is finished, but the problem is that it requires the Titanium Ranger to pilot. With Diabolico’s Curse of the Cobra still upon Ryan Mitchell every time he morphs, using the new Zord is not an option. When both Thunderon and Falkar engage the Supertrain Megazord at the same time, Ryan disobeys orders, morphs, and takes the new Max Solarzord out to help the other Rangers. Even as the Cobra tattoo on his back continues to grow and cause him pain, the Titanium Ranger commands the Max Solarzord to fly up into space in order to fully charge itself up, and then swoop back down and transform into Robot Mode! With a series of blindingly-fast kicks and punches, the Max Solarzord destroys Falkar. When Thunderon catches him by surprise, Titanium Ranger is momentarily stunned, but uses the Max Solarzord’s laser blaster shield to destroy him as well. As the other Rangers congratulate him on his victory, Ryan slumps in the cockpit…

Train Mode
When launched from the Aquabase, the Max Solarzord is in Train Mode, and can travel along any of the same paths that the Rail Rescues can.

Shuttle Mode
To fully charge its power cells for combat, the Max Solarzord changes into Shuttle Mode to get closer to the Sun.

Robot Mode

The Max Solarzord’s shield acts as both an energy-attack absorption device and ranged dual laser blaster.

In a later episode, it is revealed that the Max Solarzord can tow the Rail Rescues both on the ground and in the air just like a train engine! However, it does not actually combine with the Supertrain Megazord in any way.

The Max Solarzord has only an aft hitch, but it can be placed in front of Rail Rescue-1.

For those of you wondering what the differences are between the Deluxe Max Solarzord from “Power Rangers Lightspeed Rescue” (2000) and its original Japanese counterpart, the DX Tokkyu Busou Liner Boy from “Kyuukyuu Sentai GoGo-V” (1999), there was one minor difference:

The large “M” on either side of the Train Mode has a white stripe beneath it. On the Liner Boy, that stripe had the words “Max Liner” (which was the name of its high-speed train form in Japan). Since this would make no sense to an English speaking audience (even though the words themselves were in English), they were replaced with the pain white stripe.

Otherwise all other decal designs, materials, plastic molds and coloring, and paint applications remain the same between the two toys!

In Epsiode 16, “The Cobra Strikes”, Diabolico appears before the Rangers with a new hybrid version of the three Troika demons (Demonite, Thunderon, and Falkar) that they thought they had destroyed! Meanwhile with Miss Fairweather unable to find a cure for the growing tattoo, Ryan travels to the lair of the Cobra demon which Diabolico had told him about previously, and engages the monster one-on-one as the Titanium Ranger. The Rangers engage the Troika monster and defeat him with their new wrist-mounted Battle Boosters, but Diabolico returns and absorbs their powers to make himself a giant. The Supertrain Megazord is summoned, but Diabolico severely damages it, forcing the Rangers into using the Lightspeed Megazord. Ryan finally succeeds in killing the Cobra demon, freeing himself of its curse, and then takes the Max Solarzord into battle. Using the Battle Boosters as a key, the Rangers all put the two Megazords together to form the combined Lightspeed Solarzord!

The Lightspeed Solarzord can hover quickly across the ground while strafing monsters with its four built-in forearm laser cannons. As a bonus, the energy panels across its armor can reduce damage significantly by absorbing powerful blasts to recharge itself! Then, when its energy cells are maxed out, a pair of large cannons unfolds from the hips and the Lightspeed Solarzord delivers a massive energy barrage to finish off monsters once and for all!

Incorrectly positioned

Correctly positioned

Because of the positioning of the hip cannons, the Lightspeed Solarzord’s arms will never hang straight down. Because of how the arms on the Deluxe Lightspeed Megazord transform, however, the shoulders can still pivot outwards so that they can still be brought to a vertical position to either side of the hip cannons.

I love the smooth, streamlined look of bullet trains, and I love the look of sleek, streamlined spaceships (well, technically, reentry vehicles). So, when you put those two together, that’s an instant win with me, especially with such a simple transition between the two, just fold the wings! The two modes don’t clash with each other by having elements or kibble that contrast with the other mode because it all fits together in a neat package. (So what if the shuttle has a laser-blasting cow catcher? It works!) A train engine, a space shuttle, and a giant robot, ehh? Sounds like someone over at PLEX was a fan of the Transformers character known as Decepticon Blitzwing…
One thing I really don’t like is that what works for the alt modes doesn’t for Robot Mode, and that is how it is a solid block [from the outside]. I’m going to be honest, and say that I don’t like it when a robot appears on-screen with clearly-defined legs that it walks and runs about with, and then the toy representation of that robot just has them molded together (even if it would be impossible for them to pose due to construction and/or transformation processes). To me, that just feels cheap and dishonest. If the toy stands only 1-3” tall, it would depend on what I thought of the rest of the toy to compensate, but certainly not something that stands 9” tall! Have big blocky legs, okay, but split them apart somehow to show that they are legs!

While it’s nice that the extra shoulders joints were preserved, I didn’t want it for the sole purpose of getting around a new large obstacle on the hips. Yeah, having hip-mounted giant cannons is cool, but losing a point of articulation is always depressing. Again, the spinning Lightspeed Rescue logo on the belt returns, just like on the Lightspeed Megazord, though in this case it is justified because it’s needed visually when combined. I like all the sparkly reflective solar panels on the toy when it is alone (nice effects, by the way), but I wish some more of those same panels could somehow have been extended to the shoulders and/or forearms a little when combined.

I almost didn’t get this toy because I’m not the biggest fan of it, but I felt that my collection of Deluxe-sized "Power Rangers Lightspeed Rescue" Zords would not have been complete without having a Deluxe Max Solarzord. Recommended, with prejudice.